Death Stranding released five years back as PS4 exclusive under the Sony first-party umbrella, but though that’s how the IP started life, it continues to break exclusivity ties with PlayStation. Developer Kojima Productions announced that that the game had surprise launched for Xbox Series X/S, courtesy of publisher 505 Games (which also published the game on PC). Alongside that, news has also emerged on the IP itself.
Kojima Productions has announced that it now has full control and ownership of the Death Stranding IP. Considering the game’s aforementioned PC release, which wasn’t handled by Sony, and its upcoming movie adaptation, which isn’t seeing Sony’s involvement either, Kojima Productions was clearly not limiting itself to working with just one company or platform right from the get go, but that has now been made official.
It should be interesting to see what impact this has on Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’s platform availability in the long run, with the game due out next year for PS5. Interestingly enough, it’s been almost exactly five years to the day since Death Stranding came out, suggesting that there may have been a timed exclusivity agreement in place.